International Journal of Business and Technology Management

e-ISSN: 2682-7646 | Vol. 5, No. S5, 26-32, 2023

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SPECIAL ISSUE: 2 International Conference on Business Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology (ICOBET) 2023

An Application of the Dijkstra’s Algorithm Model in Finding

Shortest Traveling Time of Ambulance to Hospital Kuala
Lumpur

Jamilah Mohd Ghazali1*, Neha Siva Kumar1, Muhammad Zarhin Roslin2

1
Department of Science and Mathematics, Centre for Diploma Studies, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia,
Pagoh Higher Education Hub, 84600, Pagoh, Johor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Received: 1 July 2023 | Accepted: 15 August 2023 | Published: 1 December 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55057/ijbtm.2023.5.S5.4
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract: Traffic congestion has become a widespread issue in many well-developed areas.
This issue has mainly caused problems for ambulance services. This study was conducted to
solve this issue. One of the factors of this problem is due to the increase in population. It is
well known that Kuala Lumpur is a heavily populated area. Thus, this results in traffic
congestion around Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). The main goals of this study are to
determine the shortest path between two nodes and to reduce the amount of time an ambulance
needs to drive from the hospital to the accident scene. This study guarantees the Dijkstra's
Algorithm method's functional efficacy within a 5-kilometer radius of HKL. As additional
elements need to be taken into account, there are crucial procedures that need to be taken when
using Dijkstra's Algorithm to guarantee that the time and distance computations can be
approximated accurately. There are certain implicit consequences that may be detected from
this project once the planning has been decided. Patients can therefore get prompt medical
attention.

Keywords: Dijkstra’s Algorithm, node, route, HKL, algorithm

___________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

Nowadays, it can always be heard from the news that there will be traffic jams, especially in
areas around the city. This can have a negative impact on road users from various aspects. This
is a big concern to many, especially to the patients sent by the ambulance. This is because it
has been found that there are many cases that have claimed the lives of patients sent by
ambulance. Due to the occurrence of traffic congestion, as stated by Sisiopiku et al. (2011),
emergency vehicles may be unable to quickly and reliably get to the scene of a traffic accident
or other tragedy, especially during peak hours. This congestion has affected the movement of
ambulances. As mentioned by Abu Kasim et al. (2018), Kuala Lumpur is the biggest city in
Malaysia and in fact, there are many people who live and work in that area. Thus, Kuala
Lumpur is becoming a busy city especially during peak hours where the roads are often jammed
with cars and other types of vehicles.

In this study, some important steps are taken to ensure that this problem can be avoided. The
search for effective methods and formulas in detail is done to ensure that the movement of the
ambulance can be facilitated for the transport of patients to the hospital at an immediate rate.

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 International Journal of Business and Technology Management
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This method needs to be implemented immediately to ensure the patient’s life will be saved.
Proper methods are important to find the shortest route in addition road congestion can be
avoided. There are so many methods used to find the shortest path such as Dijkstra’s algorithm,
A* algorithm, Genetic algorithm, Floyd algorithm and Ant algorithm. However, this research
will demonstrate how Dijkstra's algorithm may address this issue since this algorithm
have little complexity that can be used to calculate the shortest path between a single node to
all other nodes by stopping the algorithm once the shortest distance is achieved for the
destination node (Venkat, 2014), particularly in areas surrounding major cities with heavy
traffic during peak hours. Dijkstra’s algorithm was formally introduced by Edsger w. Dijkstra
in 1959 as a solution to the shortest path problem. Today, Dijkstra's algorithm for the shortest
path problem is one of the most celebrated algorithms in computer science and a very popular
algorithm in operations research (Misra, 2001). Besides, according to Chen and Nakamura
(2003), Dijkstra’s algorithm can be known as a path from a source vertex v to a target vertex
u is said to be the shortest path if its total cost is minimum among all v -to- u paths.

Despite the fact that many highways were built decades ago, Kuala Lumpur's significant traffic
congestion is difficult to avoid. Also, it has been discovered via study into this issue that
ambulances are most affected by significant traffic congestion. Due to Kuala Lumpur's growing
population and car fleet, this issue exists. This issue makes it impossible for the ambulances to
reach HKL on time. Heavy traffic congestion will result from a rapid increase in the population.
Moreover, this circumstance causes slower speeds, longer travel times, and an increase in
traffic congestion (Forson et al., 2009).

Research has been done as a basis to show the importance of this project which is an approach
to traffic congestion affecting ambulance and patient movement. Thus, the ambulances can
arrive on time to the hospital before the emergency starts. However, this study must pay
attention only to the area near about 5 km radius around HKL. Finding the shortest time and
distance from the accident location is not easy. Thus, Dijkstra’s algorithm method can be
applied to find the shortest time and path between patient places to their workplace hospital
effectively. For that reason, the public around this area will benefit through the proposed
models which aim in making life of the hospital staff easier by obtaining the shortest route and
time from a location to another location.

Consequently, the focus of this research is on introducing Dijkstra's algorithm as a crucial

technique for determining the shortest path while using Microsoft Excel, the most basic piece
of software. This study uses the algorithm in the most basic software to make it easier for non-
computer users to comprehend and operate them, which leads to the same conclusion (Biswas
et al., 2005). This will improve patient transportation by ambulance. The goal of this study is
to discover the shortest path between two nodes and to reduce the amount of time ambulances
spend travelling between victims and hospitals.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials
The materials used in this case study are Google maps and Microsoft excel.

2.2 Methods
As to produce effective research, there are procedures to be followed:

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2.2.1 Information Gathering

There are three main resources for gathering information for this case study which are journal,
internet and books.

2.2.2 Data Collection

Data is collected based on the map obtained from Google map. The map is used to find the
travel time from one node to another. Major and minor highways were included in the built
road network. The data gathered is within a 5 km radius of HKL, and all location-related
information as well as information regarding the road network, such as traffic lights and
roundabouts, as well as travel times and distances to specific locations, are recognized. The
following are the steps involved in setting up the nodes and the road networks:

Step 1: Downloading Google Map.

Install Google Maps on your system. To set the starting and finishing nodes for the
approximately 5 km radius surrounding HKL, click "Get direction" after that. The starting node
for this project is HKL, A and the ending node is Taman Titiwangsa, 𝑈. There are a few key
routes that will be taken from HKL to Taman Titiwangsa, and from the three main routes, there
will be a few minor roads. Three key routes, Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Pahang, and Jalan Masjid,
have been recommended using Google Maps.

Step 2: Identify starting and ending nodes.

Click "Get Directions" or just "Enter" after choosing the beginning and finishing nodes. An
area image appeared. Figure 1 shows the configuration of the beginning node marked by 𝐴 and
the terminating node noted by 𝐵. A and B refer to HKL and Jalan Masjid, respectively.

Figure 1: Starting Node A and Ending Node B.

Step 3: Calculating the travel time.

To find the travel time for each node, one location was set as a starting node and another
location as an ending node. Then, “Get Direction” was clicked and thus, the image of the route
appeared.The nodes have been changed in order to find the travel time from one node to another
by dragging the node to the area that need to be measured.The time travel from the starting
node to the ending node started exactly at the beginning of the road. The same procedure was
used for the rest of the road network.

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2.3 Application of Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Dijkstra’s algorithm is the most efficient algorithm to solve the shortest-path problem (Wang
et al., 2011). Throughout this project, the shortest travel time from node A to node U was
obtained by using Microsoft Excel template that carried out the steps in Dijkstra’s algorithm.
According to Mohd Nordin et al. (2008), a network is considered as n nodes. Dijkstra’s
algorithm determines the shortest travel time from a given node A (the initial node) to all n-1
other nodes. In other words, the algorithm starts at node A. In each iteration, it identifies a
new node k for which the shortest time from A to k is known. At each iteration, a set of nodes,
S, representing the shortest time from A is recorded. The set S is updated by extending the
shortest path by one node at every iteration. For each iteration, the edge (i, k), where i S and
k (N − S) is found by:

dist(𝐴, 𝑖) + weight(𝑖, 𝑘) = min(𝑖 ′ ,𝑘 ′ ) dist(𝐴, 𝑖) + weight(𝑖 ′ , 𝑘 ′ )

in which dist(A,i) denoted the shortest travel time from A to i, denotes as travel time from node
i to k is the set of all possible edges from i. The edge (i, k) is then added to the shortest path,
whose origin is at A. The Dijkstra’s algorithm can also be described as the following:

Initialize all costs to infinity

Select a start node
Repeat
For every adjacent node k:
If weight of (current node + weight of edge to k) < current cost at k
Reduce a cost at j to (cost of current node + weight of edge k)
Select lowest cost node and examine adjacent node
Until all nodes have been processed

The cost is defined as the sum of all weights for the respective path.

2.3.1 Implementation steps

The three steps below show how Dijkstra’s Algorithm implemented throughout of this study:

Step 1:
The starting node A which refers to HKL. Figure 2 shows the travel time from A to A is 0
minute.

Figure 2: Node A to Node A

Step 2:
Figure 3 shows the travel time from node A to node B is 10 minutes. From A, there is only one
node that can be visited which is node B. Hence, node B will be chosen as visited node which
is the route that can be reached.

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Figure 3: Time Travel from Node A to Node B

Step 3:
In Figure 4, there are several alternative nodes from node B which are node C, D, E and F. By
using Dijkstra’s algorithm, it will compare the travel time from node D to node C, D, E and F.
By comparing the travel time from each node, node C gives the shortest travel time. Hence,
node C will be chosen as the next visited node. These procedures are repeated until all nodes
have been processed.

Figure 4: Selecting between nodes C, D, F and E

3. Results and Discussion

Table 1: Table for Dijkstra’s Algorithm for Finding the Shortest Travel Time from Node A to Node U

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Based on Table 1, the path or route starts at node A. INF means that the routes that cannot be
reached or unvisited node. Then, all nodes that can be immediately reached from A are
considered. From the node A (starting point), there is one route that can be considered to reach
the node U (destination) which is node B with a travel time of 10 seconds. After choosing the
node to be passed through, mark down the node space from the point that has been picked until
the bottom of the table to make sure that the node will not be revisited again. From node AB,
there is one possible route which is node C with the travel time of 34 seconds. However, from
node ABC, there are two possible routes; node D and E. Node E (49 seconds) has a shorter time
than node D (73 seconds), so picked node E as the route. Node D cannot be forgotten because
it may be the possible shorter route that can be considered. From node ABCE, there is only one
route that can be visited which is node D with a travel time of 73 seconds. It means that the
route with the shorter time is from node A to node B to node C to node D without pass through
node E. Consider these 2 steps before declaring the route and think about the shortest time from
destination to the possible routes and look back at the previous routes if the chosen node
is already can be considered. The steps are repeated until the shortest time and distance has
been found from the node A (starting point) to node U (destination) which is the purpose of
application of the Dijkstra Algorithm. The result got from the table above for the routes from
starting point to destination are node; A→ B→C →D→ F→ L→ J→ K→I →P→ Q→ M→
O→ N→R →S→ T→ U which takes 408 seconds. Delayed arrival of emergency vehicles for
a couple of seconds can cause a major loss for some, hence, Dijkstra’s algorithm is proposed
to find the routing of movement of emergency vehicles in least time using shortest path. The
movement of these vehicles should be safe and vehicles should follow shortest path with least
congestion route, in most efficient and effective time. Dijkstra's shortest route technique is
extremely beneficial in alleviating traffic congestion issues. It can help to offer information
about traffic points with traffic jams and let users choose the best alternative route to avoid
congestion. (Sularsi et al., 2010).

4. Conclusion

As a conclusion, the application of Dijkstra’s algorithm aims to find the shortest travel time of
the ambulance to the accident scene may help to improve the efficiency of ambulance
management. Dijkstra’s algorithm is one of the methods that can be used to solve the routing
problem where it can help the drivers to find the shortest time that can be used to avoid the
traffic jam and help them to arrive at the hospital promptly. The patients around this area will
benefit through the proposed models which intending for the patient to receive treatment as
soon as possible by obtaining shortest route and travel time of the ambulance to the incident
site. This system can provide information on the shortest path and shortest time of the vehicles
in order to arrive on time to the destination node.

Acknowledgements
The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Centre for Diploma Studies
University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia for all of their assistance and support.

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